What’s your “house wine” for each region?

[Blanquito]

Thinking about my wine preferences, it occurs to me from time to time how a single wine ends up dominating my sweet spot in a given wine region. A certain wine will just click with my palate and so I end up buying lots of that domaine, and in the process it becomes most of what I have for that region (say, >75% of the bottles) and thus turns into my “house wine” for said region. Of course, this doesn’t happen for Bordeaux (or champagne, Germany, southern Rhône, chianti) as I have too many favorites there, but it does for so many other regions and varietals (with some regions like Loire red not really being a notable part of my wine profile at all).

Here’s my list:
•Beaujolais- Thivin
•Chablis- Billaud Simon
•White Bordeaux: Malartic Lagraviere (honorable mention: Carbonnieux)
•Austria- Alzinger
•White Loire- Huet
•Rioja- Lopez de Heredia
•Barbaresco- Produttori
•White Burgundy- PYCM (honorable mention: Niellon)
•Red Burgundy- Jadot
•Zinfandel- Ridge Geyserville
•Oregon Pinot- St. Innocent
•Cali Syrah/Rhône Ranger- Edmunds St John
•Cali Cabs- Ridge (various vineyards and cuvées)
•Northern Rhone- Levet
•Bandol- Tempier
•Brunello- Lisini
•Barolo- Elio Grasso (used to be Roagna but then prices went nuts)
•Sauternes: La Tour Blanche

What are yours?

[Claudius2]

Hmm let me think…

Margaret River - Ashbrook Chardonnay and CS
Coonawarra - Wynns Black Label CS
Yarra Valley - Oakridge CS and Giant Steps Chardonnays
Hunter Valley - Mount pleasant Elizabeth Semillon
Frankland (WA) - Alkoomi Syrah and Riesling
Barossa-,Turkey Flat Shiraz
McLaren Vale - Tintara Shiraz
Clare and Eden Valley - Pewsey Vale Riesling.

Burgundy - Remoissenet whites and whatever reds I can get a deal on at auction though generally Morot Beaunes, Justin Girardin reds from SLB, Beaune, Chassagne and Santenay. NSG from anyone and Pommard, GC and Volnays when the auction house is having a bad day.
Rhône - St Joseph and Crozes Hermitage from producers without huge egos.
Champagne - Piper Heidseick, Cattier, Nicolas Fuillatte and Lanson or what is on sale in e-commerce merchants
Bordeaux - reasonably priced St Emilions and Haut Medocs. Thirty years ago it was Cru Classes from St Julien and Pauillac but prices have changed.

Spain - Muga Reserva and whatever friends bring over.
Italy - Chianti Classicos eg Frescobaldi, Fonterutoli, Gabbiano, Recine, Antinori or whatever I can find here.

NZ - these wines are permanently banned here
US - never buy them here and very few are ever sold

So 90% of our consumption is from France and Australia unless traveling.

Cheers
Mark

[DavidG]

I usually associate “house wine” with “good QPR,” “inexpensive,” “daily drinker,” “cellar defender” and the like, so when I glanced through your list PYCM really jumped out at me. Patrick is drinking well! Then I went back and read your explanation…

There are only a few regions where a single producer dominates:
Barbaresco - Produttori
Napa cab with age - Shafer (stopped buying when prices spiked but still have a bunch)
Napa cab young - MacDonald
Châteauneuf - Beaucastel
Mosel - JJ Prüm

Other regions I’m interested in I don’t seem to have gravitated to a dominant producer. Bordeaux while I have my favorites I’m all over the place with multiple different producers.

[stefan]

Good gosh, Patrick; from the areas in which we both have a house wine, my list looks resembles yours.

•Chablis- Louis Michel
•Rioja-Marques de Riscal/Lopez de Heredia
•Barbaresco- Produttori
•White Burgundy- Niellon/Boillot
•Red Burgundy- Jadot
•Zinfandel- Ridge Geyserville/Lytton Springs
•Oregon Pinot- St. Innocent
•Southern Rhone- Beaucastel
•Sauternes - La Tour Blanche
•Barsac- Coutet
•Champagne- Pol Roger

[jal]

Not sure about house wine, but here are some favorites that I try to buy whenever available.
Using Stefan's list

•Chablis- Louis Michel/Billaud Simon/William Fevre
•Rioja-La Rioja Alta/Lopez de Heredia
•Nebbiolo- Produttori/ Oddero/Elio Grasso
•Chianti- Felsina/Castello di Bossi
•White Burgundy- Niellon/Carillon
•Red Burgundy- Mugnier/Bachelet/La Vougeraie
•Oregon Pinot- St. Innocent/Evesham Wood
•St Joseph or Cote Rotie- Levet/Faury/Chave
•Champagne- Agrapart/Roederer 242
•Israeli- Tzora

[Blanquito]

Lol, David. Yeah, PYCM is not a daily drinker at Che Martin! That said, I loaded up on various 16, 17 and 18 PYCM cuvées that were all $35-$65 as pre-arrival, stuff from St Aubin, Rully, Pernand Vergelesses (PYCM ‘17 P-V Combottes is especially wonderful), and Haut-Cotes-de-Beaune. Cases of the stuff. And I’m glad I did as these are all so tasty and the pricing I got were a flash in the pan.

Funny thing is I didn’t intentionally set out to get a ‘regional favorite’ (which inevitably includes some aspect of QPR), but it happened anyway after certain domaines stood out at all of the tastings through the years with the Colorado wine crowd.

[Blanquito]

Good gosh, Patrick; from the areas in which we both have a house wine, my list looks resembles yours.

•Chablis- Louis Michel
•Rioja-Marques de Riscal/Lopez de Heredia
•Barbaresco- Produttori
•White Burgundy- Niellon/Boillot
•Red Burgundy- Jadot
•Zinfandel- Ridge Geyserville/Lytton Springs
•Oregon Pinot- St. Innocent
•Southern Rhone- Beaucastel
•Sauternes - La Tour Blanche
•Barsac- Coutet
•Champagne- Pol Roger

Ha! And I nearly put Beaucastel and Pol Roger down, but decided they didn’t quite make the cut (5+ years ago, Pol Roger definitely would have).

[Blanquito]

•Red Burgundy- Mugnier/Bachelet/La Vougeraie
•Oregon Pinot-Evesham Wood

I’m gonna go look for these! For the burgs, any particular value plays at these Domaines, Jacques?

[Blanquito]

Hmm let me think…

Margaret River - Ashbrook Chardonnay and CS
Coonawarra - Wynns Black Label CS
Yarra Valley - Oakridge CS and Giant Steps Chardonnays
Hunter Valley - Mount pleasant Elizabeth Semillon
Frankland (WA) - Alkoomi Syrah and Riesling
Barossa-,Turkey Flat Shiraz
McLaren Vale - Tintara Shiraz
Clare and Eden Valley - Pewsey Vale Riesling.

Love the specificity of Aussie wines! I’ve never heard of most of these, in fact Wynns is probably the only one I’ve encountered. Need to check these out.

[Nicklasss]

Good idea blanquito. I'll the same area as you.

Here’s my list:
•Beaujolais- Thivin and Clos de la Roilette
•Chablis- Bessin or Gueguen
•White Bordeaux:
•Austria- none
•White Loire- Domaine Garaudiere Muscadet or almost any 12.5 % alcohol Sancerre
•Rioja- Rayos de Uva
•Barbaresco- Produttori
•White Burgundy- Bichot secret de famille
•Red Burgundy- Anne Paquet Bourgogne or Chorey or Savigny
•Zinfandel- Ridge Geyserville
•Oregon Pinot- Cristom
•Cali Syrah/Rhône Ranger- Qupé
•Cali Cabs- Freemark Abbey
•Northern Rhone- Jamet brothers
•Bandol- Domaine de Terrebrune
•Brunello- Fattoria dei Barbi
•Barolo- none
•Sauternes: Raymond Lafond

Extras:

Southern Rhône - Mont Redon
Alsace - Léon Beyer
Champagne - Laurent Perrier
Languedoc - Domaine Jullien
Loire red - Raffault or Bernard Beaudry
Australia - Penfold's (red and white), St Hallett

[jal]

•Red Burgundy- Mugnier/Bachelet/La Vougeraie
•Oregon Pinot-Evesham Wood

I’m gonna go look for these! For the burgs, any particular value plays at these Domaines, Jacques?

Patrick,
For Mugnier it has to be the Nuits St Georges Clos de la Marechale, but it has doubled in price the last 3 years. Last one I bought was the 2017. Mugnier is organic. The regular Chambolles Village is also excellent but I prefer the NSG
Bachelet, the Gevrey Chambertin les Corbeaux VV is amazing but very expensive now, I just buy the Cote de Nuits Villages or the regular Bourgogne and even those are getting up in price.
Domaine de la Vougeraie Bourgogne Pinot Noir Terres de Famille is the bargain of the lineup in this amazing domaine. I know the criticism is that it is owned by the Boisset group, i don't care. I think every wine made with the name is fantastic. The Musigny was tremendous but not affordable anymore. Domaine is biodynamic

[Blanquito]

Thanks. I see the 2013 Vougeraie Terres de Famille for $30, worth a try? Were the ‘13 red burgs as bad as Bordeaux that year?

[jal]

Thanks. I see the 2013 Vougeraie Terres de Famille for $30, worth a try? Were the ‘13 red burgs as bad as Bordeaux that year?

Nope, I like the 2013s, some more than others but still ok.

Here's Burghound's note on the 2013
86 points
(Domaine de la Vougeraie Bourgogne - Terres de Famille Red) All but invisible wood frames very fresh aromas of various red berries and a trace of earth. There is fine energy to the nicely precise and intense flavors that possess a refreshing saline element on the clean, delicious and linear finish. This isn't especially complex but I like the delivery. (Drink starting 2015)

Ignore the rating, he gave 87 to the 2016 which I thought was sublime. His numeric ratings are useless.

[JimHow]

He loves to give the utterly useless 88-91 and 89-92 ratings.

[Blanquito]

We made fun of a certain rating system that went to the hundredth place (e.g. 91.27 pts), but I prefer that to useless score ranges. Soon these will be 81-94 pts, where at least no one can bring a libel suit against a reviewer. “Burgundy, where are the women are strong and the wines are all above average (but not too much above average)” TM.

[JimHow]

I just bought 6 bottles of 2020 Thivin Zacharrie, the 12 I got from Zachys last year are all gone.

[Blanquito]

I just bought 6 bottles of 2020 Thivin Zacharrie, the 12 I got from Zachys last year are all gone.

Guess you liked it!

[JimHow]

Are house wines the same as cellar savers? I usually only drink wine on Thursday/Friday nights so I try to uncork something substantial. I am trying to build up cellar savers to protect these young 2014s, 15, 16, 19s that have many years to wait. Wines like 2016 Larose Trintaudon, 2019 Ridge Geyserville, and now 2020 Thivin Zacharrie. I’m still hoping to buy 3-4 bottles of various 2019 Bordeaux and drinking one of each in 2023 in the name of science.

I loved that Thivin Patrick, I probably drank 6 of them and brought 6 more to various gatherings and family affairs, where it was generally a crowd favorite.

[JoelD]

This is a great exercise, although barely applies to me yet. I still backfill a lot in ones and twos. But some of my clear go to wines that I intend to keep buying and drinking, and are reasonable QPR are as follows:

Bojo- Clos de la Roilette Tardive
Champ- Hebrart bdb NV, Bereche reserve, Agrapart 7 crus
Bdx- Lanessan, Capbern, d'Issan
White Burg- Used to be Bzikot, Marc Morey now. Chassagne>Puligny
Brunello- Livio Sassetti
Barolo- Old Fontanafredda and Old Borgogno
Germany- Prum and Selbach Oster

[Chateau Vin]

I really don’t have big list, but here it goes...

Champagne - Pol Roger White label
Chablis - William Fevre
Burgundy - Jadot
Germany- Prum
Beaujolais - Diochon/Lapierre
Barolo - Pio Cesare
Bordeaux - Sociando
Oregon - St Innocent

[Claudius2]

Hmm let me think…

Margaret River - Ashbrook Chardonnay and CS
Coonawarra - Wynns Black Label CS
Yarra Valley - Oakridge CS and Giant Steps Chardonnays
Hunter Valley - Mount pleasant Elizabeth Semillon
Frankland (WA) - Alkoomi Syrah and Riesling
Barossa-,Turkey Flat Shiraz
McLaren Vale - Tintara Shiraz
Clare and Eden Valley - Pewsey Vale Riesling.

Love the specificity of Aussie wines! I’ve never heard of most of these, in fact Wynns is probably the only one I’ve encountered. Need to check these out.

The wines I mention are exactly the top wines of these regions though offer good value and show the style of the region.

Some of these such as Ashbrook, Alkoomi, Mt Pleasant, Pewsey Vale, Tintara and most Wynns wines are inexpensive in Australia and a bit more expensive in Singapore BUT easily available and pretty good examples of their region.